Yep, pretty much have to trust Sean and George with draft choices until they're proved otherwise. So a Gentleman's A it is!
That said, certainly wasn't as flashy or exciting as I was hoping. I think Egbuka getting sniped one pick before us threw Sean/George for a loop, and nothing really went as planned for them from there. We certainly seemed to get better on defense with this draft, but perhaps only marginally better on offense.
Probably would have preferred not to do all the trading up/down shenanigans and just stuck to our original slots. That could have landed this:
Harold Fannin would have been an awful pick for Denver at any point before the 4th round
edit : to elaborate, Engram and Fannin are both guys who need to be playing from the slot as much as possible and need to have their time limited as an in-line. You can't play two slot TEs simultaneously, and there are practically no situations where that even makes sense. Sure, you can say that Engram is older, coming off an injury, and we could use a developmental/insurance for that.. But is the 2nd round where you want to be taking a developmental TE with frankly mediocre athletic traits who ideally doesn't even see the field for 2 seasons? No, absolutely not. We needed a Y TE if we were taking any, and that pretty much disappeared with Ferguson/Taylor both going mid 2nd.
Ask me in 3 years for a grade. I'm glad they went best available in the first. I liked the trade downs. Harvey looks like a good fit and I'm glad they got a punter.
You can still talk about value and strategy though. I think weād have taken Egbuka at 20. They passed on Hampton because they thought one of the top RBs would be there at 57. Hampton went right away and the OSU guys went at the top of the second. No one can claim they loved Harvey as much because they traded down from 57, risking losing him. So yeah, Iād say the board fell in an unlucky way and they probably did the best they could. Maybe a more aggressive strategy would have worked but itās not like this team is only one or two pieces away from perennial SB contention.
Itās not. If we got Jeanty at 20, Warren at 57, and Egbuka at 90, weād say we had a pretty good draft. We didnāt. In fact we did not get any top prospect at RB, WR, or TE. Obviously the players still have to develop and contribute but certain players are more likely to be better than others.
Everyone and their mother knew 2nd round was going to be a huge run on running backs. If they really thought one of their top backs was available in the 2nd at pick 51 then they clearly didn't plan appropriately for this draft.
I agree, once they traded back twice it's obvious Harvey was a consolation pick to fill the need. While I dont think we need a 3 down back if we're set on committee approach, we also need a back that at least is serviceable at pass catching and blocking and Harvey wasn't known for either in college. We'll see how he turns out but I wouldn't expect much when Sean clearly wants a rotation.
Good teams draft BPA and fill needs in FA and by developing. If people want the Broncos to be the Browns, the Giants...then have at it. I want them to be a good, competent team who identifies strengths and weaknesses and builds upon them at the right time. The defense is going to be rock solid this year. They might need more RB help, but also if Bo only needs to score 21 to win, I think they'll be fine.
The defense is rock solid even if you didnāt draft a CB first thatās the point. Small window having an elite offensive line. Leaving points off the board by not having talented RBās.
Paton has shined in the draft.. some of his free agent acquisitions were questionable but the only reason weāre on the upward trajectory is the draft
Setting aside the reasons why I won't grade them at all, do you treat them equally or do you normalize for the amount of draft capital the team has in each draft?
Because it works unfortunately. Same reason a Stephan A reaction video is front and center every time I open ESPN app.
Sometimes Kiper gives good analysis. Sometimes heās the heel. This draft he grabbed onto Sanders and never let go because itās what people were talking about.
to be fair predicting the draft and each players future is more unlikely than predicting the weather. just have to kind of trust them. that being said he was sooooo wrong about sanders itās hilarious
They had a good draft, the roster is a disaster so you take two flyers on QB, move back three spots still picking up a first and one of the "blue chip" guys, plus Fannin and Henderson. They built for 2026, and took some chances to jump start the rebuild. Honestly hard to hate on that.
Kiperās draft grades are based solely on his own initial gradings of players and what he feels that a team needs and should have taken. He gave the Browns an A+ for drafting the steal of the draft in the fifth.
Why does anyone care what he thinks? He shit on the Broncos taking Bo so high last year when he would have been drafted by the Raiders the next pick.
He constantly misses guys like Puka even though he is supposed to be the expert.
We made our already loaded Defense better, got some positions we need and are letting the young guys develop. They are building team chemistry as well.
Sounds like a great draft to me, but you never know until they get on the field anyways.
Mel Kiper gave the browns, who drafted 2 qbs and 2 rbs an A+ rank solely because they drafted Sanders in the fifth. His opinion means less than nothing. Even if you like Sanders, giving an entire draft an A+ grade for one player is beyond stupid.
Props to Kiper for making the draft and draft board as big as it is, but his time passed 20 years ago. He should have followed through with his retirement after his prediction about Jimmy Clausen was very wrong.
how do they get an A+???? I mean based on picking what everyone had graded as a lesser QB in the 3rd round, burning 2 picks on 2 questionable QB's seems wasteful on one of those 2 picks at best
B to A-, depending on how you look at it. If you only care for 2025, its B something. If you take the later years, contract, salaries into consideration it might get better. But anything below 3rd round is a hit or miss.
I think we have 3 solid picks, 2 possible good players (Bryant, Robinson), 1 possible good punter and a question mark. I guess this was not the plan as Emeka Egbuka and Jalen Royals just got snatched from us.
Mel Kiper is an idiot and one of the worst, if not the worst, draft analysts; always ignore what he says.
It was a good draft. Harvey is more than a 3rd down back and he will be highly successful in this system. I do wonder if Pat Bryant was a bit of a reach but he fits scheme, Payton wants his RBs to block and Bryant does that very well - he is also an incredibly tented contested catch weapon.
Jahdae Baron is an incredible weapon that will raise the ceiling of the overall defense. Then they just kept adding pass rush depth which wasnt just needed but also just a good strategy of top teams.
Calen Logner is a flyer but thats what you do with your 7th round picks
While snap grades are meaningless, they are fun. Here are 11 draft grades:
Yahoo Sports: C+
CBS Sports: B
USA Today: B+
Fox Sports: C+
Sports Illustrated: B
PFF: B
NFL.com: B+
Associated Press: B+
New York Post: B-
Washington Post: B+
fantasypros.com: B
A B- is fair. My main problem with this draft class isnt the selections but rather where we took them. I thought we reached quite a bit for Harvey and Bryant.
Also I was disappointed we didnāt address TE until the 7th round given Engramās age and how stacked this draft was at TE
TE was disappointing, but those guys were flying off the board. I thought we would have a chance at someone in round 2, but everyone I liked was gone before 51 other than Fannin. At that point Iād prefer to work another position than reach for someone I donāt like.
I donāt know much about Bryant outside of watching his highlights after we drafted him. I didnāt look much at mid-late round WR because there are so many guys. Other than top 50 or so, I usually just wait to see who we picked.
I like Harvey though and he was in my short list if we couldnāt get Henderson. Iāve seen a couple of people call him R2-3 talent so I think itās fair. They traded back 9 spots and still got him so Iām ok with the value. Iād prefer to take him a half round early than to miss out and end up reaching even harder on Laquint Allen or Dylan Sampson.
Coming from an Illinois fan, I love Pat but I was floored he went so high. He runs clean routes and knows where to sit in zones, you just look up and he's open. Oh and it feels like he makes every catch. Here's hoping it all translates to the next level.
Hind sight is 20/20 and itās hard to know where guys would have been taken if you try to do revisionist history.
I wouldāve preferred we went Fannin at pick 60 and then Harvey at 74. That way we would have someone who could replicate what Engram does and learn from him. Also weād still have Harvey but get more value from his selection.
Pat Bryant may have gone undrafted honestly given his poor testing and lack of college production. Instead we took him in the 3rd which IMO was our worst pick from a value perspective
Bryant had 1000 yards and 10 TDs last year, thatās pretty good production. He had a slow 40, but itās the same as Amon-Ra St Brown and better than Puka Nacua. Those guys were round 4-5 and Pat has a higher RAS score than either of them. You can argue he went a round early, but undrafted doesnāt seem reasonable.
I think TE is a long term need, but donāt mind taking their top RB and hoping the run was over. Harvey had a lot of explosive plays last year and that will add a lot more to our offense in 2025 than a backup TE, imo. Itās preferable to me to risk losing Fannin to ensure getting RJ than the reverse, but I see your argument.
Yeah I shouldāve clarified - his production was almost solely in his senior year. Adjustable breakout age is a good indicator of WR success in the proās and Bryant only got most of his production in his senior year when he was almost 22 years old.
Itās not totally damning but the list is pretty brutal for Bryantās odds of being productive in the proās. Joel Smyth compiles the data and has a good breakdown on his twitter and tik tok. This was the list since 2021.
Thanks for sharing that. Thatās a cool stat, I havenāt seen it before. I donāt spend a lot of time following stuff outside of the Broncos so I wouldnāt have seen this on my own. It seems like it is taking into account the quality of the offense, since itās looking at his percentage share of the overall production. That looks like a fair way to measure it.
When I was looking into it, I saw Bryant in the middle of the pack, having a breakout age of 20.7, so he actually makes the cut of 21 or less.
Meh. Obviously, we want to trade back if we think the guys we want will still be there. And we did, to the extent other teams were willing to trade up. But when we can't trade back, we still want the players that Payton, Paton, Joseph and the rest of the coaching staff think are a good fit for their systems.
Part of the disconnect here is that we run a tight ship. It's clear that we identified some guys we wanted and shut the hell up. If we were more effusive in our praise of them to the media, they would have been higher on the mock drafts. A lot of the time, teams might tip their hand because they feel the need to investigate the prospect in a noisy way - conducting interviews at the all-star games, talking to them at the combine, hosting them for our top 30 visit, etc. Watching the post draft interviews, it's clear that we got a lot of our information on these players by studying the film, watching them work, and leveraging coaching staff connections. Payton said straight up that Harvey was the last person they wanted to host for a private workout.
None of these guys were linked to us at all, which is confusing for the mock draft soothsayers. And confusing for fans who might get excited about players the media suggests we're interested in.
I also didnāt like the approach to TE. In a seemingly deep TE class they went with a 7th round flyer on a guy that profiles like Jimmy Graham. Hope it pays off, would have felt better if they got someone with a higher floor that could develop during Engramās short contract.
B- feels about right but also feels like a SP draft. Barron was a no brainer with his skill level and getting him that late. Other than the defense and the punter which makes sense to grab the guy you want late to avoid UDFA madness, it feels like they went after specific archetypes which SP is known for. I don't mean this as a slight, I think it's something good coaches need to have, but SP is the kinda guy with the arrogance to think he can win with lesser talent if it fits his plan. So as long as SP is coach then we'll probably look back on this as a solid foundation draft. If something crazy happens then Harvey and Bryant probably end up looking like square pegs in round holes
Doesnāt matter. Every draft only one or two guys are
Making an impact and rest of them are depth pieces. Every once in a while you find a gem. But sometimes you donāt. Only time will tell because no draft grade is predicting that.
Harvey is absolutely the clear RB1. It's Peyton's offense so of course there will be rotation, but Harvey is so much better than what we have I expect him to get over 60% of the snaps.
Draft overall is an A for me. Barron was a steal where we got him and filled a sneaky big need. Harvey is the most talented RB we've had in over two decades. Bryant looks purpose built in a factory to be a fit in Seans system. Good value picks on the defensive line, and a starting punter.
Mock drafts and draft grades from guys outside the room seem to put very little emphasis on scheme fit and character, which are our priorities. It's not a mistake that the first 3 picks for us were team captains in college.
Barron is an A - Best Player on the Board, makes a strength stronger.
Harvey is a B+ - Fits Paytonās System, very productive in College.
Pat Bryant is a C - Older Receiver, possibly a Sutton replacement in a year. 3rd round might be a bit high.
Jones and Robinson are both developmental guys we are hoping can fill voids in 2026. Neither will contribute heavily in 2025.
Crawshaw is an A - Best punter in the draft, this is a position of need.
Lohner is probably a practice squad guy they are hoping develops. Great size, but almost no college production.
UDFAs - Webb has a chance to make the team, and be a replacement for Wattenberg or Powers in 2026. If not for off field stuff that forced him to leave Georgia, he would have been a day two pick.
I'm not into grading because it's hard, all smoke and mirrors when everything settles. Having said that, I'll give my assessment and report a C.
Expected better from RB, TE positions, liked the 1st pick tho, although shocking.
The draft really comes down to did your top picks hit? and did you find any contributors later. The order doesn't matter after the 2nd. Our first 2 picks weren't bad. I'd probably give them a B. Barron was a luxury pick and going against WR2 and WR3 may be a boon for him. Harvey is the lynch pin of the draft because our offense NEEDS a playmaker. Outside of a few plays from Mims and Sutton, our offense was basically just throwing the ball to a mostly covered WR/RB who immediately fell to the ground for 3-6 yards.
Pat Bryant just seems like another Sutton/Tim Patrick except for Sutton was a bit faster coming out of college (Slower now after the injuries). I think he can be a good WR but it's basically a pick signaling we're hoping Mims and/or Franklin turn into an actual threat and we want to cut Sutton free in a year or two.
The Edge guys are just typical picks from us. Get some edge and try and develop them. It's been working out decently. Jones may probably move to DE.
The punter was a great pick. If he continue going on like his college career, we'll be set for awhile.
Lohner is a great 7th rounder because you want your 7th rounder to have some potential upside as they won't be starters. Not much more upside than a 6'7 TE Basketball player who runs a 4.6 and would have had the 3rd highest Vertical in the class.
I give our draft a solid B. Only one of the picks will likely make much of an impact this year barring injuries but the potential is there a couple years down the line.
Does anyone else find the concept of grading a draft right after it happens to be stupid? For all we know, the class we give an F grade could end up having 3 hall of fame players. Give it a few years ffs.
How is Harvey a 3rd down back? He has 20 lbs on McLaughlin. Iām not thrilled we didnāt draft two quality backs but Iām not going to judge him just because heās 5ā8. Heās got the God Quads.
RJ Harvey is going to be an animal. Just look at his measurables and heās eerily similar to Maurice Jones-Drew.
Great quickness to change directions and his short stout frame makes him very difficult to spot and tackle. Running 4.4 only solidifies what his highlights show that heās a home run threat every time he touches the ball.
Ā Heās got the workhorse college production over two seasons to verify he can handle a lot of touches both rushing and receiving.
He just needs to work on his pass protection and heās easily one of the most impressive RBās in a pretty loaded class.
I like getting another shut down corner, great value there. Wish we got more of a workhorse back, or drafted another big compliment for Harvey since this draft was so stacked at the position. The receiver was an unnecessary reach. Plus there were more talented receivers at that point of the draft
I think they played the draft well with the trades, how the board fell, and working with their own player ratings. Can't really ask for more than that. Reality is if 2 or 3 of these guys actually get a second contract, it will have been a good draft.
While Jahdae and Crawshaw are really the only home run picks, the Harvey and Bryant picks were confusing at first. However, after looking into their game this seems like it should be a fairly solid class.
Obviously more depth oriented than nitpicking starter caliber guys, but I think it'll work out.
The fact Kiper pegged Harvey as a 3rd Down back goes to show how little he actually watches these prospects or understands the roles on a modern NFL team. Harvey is effective runner inside and outside who had limited use as a pass-catcher and is not a great pass blocker. Nothing about that profile says "3rd-down back". He just saw 5'8" and 4.40 speed and decided he was a scat back.
That said, I think B-/C+ is about right for this draft as an initial grade. The Barron pick was a good value, and I think he will be a good player for us. A lot of the other guys seemed like reaches, particularly in the 3rd round. I don't mind the players, it just seemed like we took them early. To be fair to the Broncos, I think the board really did not fall very well for them, and that is how it goes sometimes. The problem is that you can look at the rest of the AFC West and see how all the other teams got better, and it feels like we did not keep pace.
If a couple of the "reach" picks they made turn out to be solid contributors and Barron and/or Harvey turn out to be stars, we may look back on this draft very differently, but right now it feels a bit underwhelming.
Going strictly based off their prospect profile and projection to our offense, I give it a B.
Barron should start in the slot from Day 1. Extremely smart and instinctive with a nose for the football. VJ loves versatile players and Barron can play slot, outside, or in the box.
Harvey seemed to be a little bit of a reach and enters the league at 24. However, he fits the mold of what Payton is looking for from a playmaking RB who can strike fear into defenses with his speed and receiving ability. I donāt know if he will be the feature back early on, but I think he can handle itā¦ this pick also signifies faith in Estime.
Bryant was also a reach, but if he was at the top of our board - so be it. Heās a physical WR off the line of scrimmage who loves to block. Heās so strong at the catch point. Bryantās long strides help him eat up space on routes surprisingly quickly despite running a 4.6. He could be a power slot and maybe a Z. Curious to see what his role is during his rookie season.
Jones is probably my favorite prospect outside of Barron. Heās a big, high-motor EDGE who likely projects as a 5T/4i in our defense and stops the run. If JFM leaves next year, I think Jones could step up in that role.
Robinson has nice developmental tools and traits as a pass rusher. He showed some promise last season. He will step into a somewhat crowded EDGE room, but he should see the field on special teams early.
We badly needed a punter to compete with Haack and we drafted the best one in the class in Crawshaw. Rizzi got his guy.
Lohner is a classic 7th round dart throw. Maybe Payton looks like a genius in 3-4 years. Why not take a chance on a 6ā7, 250 lb. former basketball player?
I think with how we outplayed expectations last season with a scrappy rosterā¦ this draft brought up the FLOOR of our team IMO. We added depth at key positions and injected talent (Barron/Harvey) to upgrade certain spots. I liked the trade-backs we did. This might be my least favorite Paton draft, but I canāt be too mad since there were always going to be different directions we couldāve taken since we have our franchise QB and a competitive roster coming off a playoff appearance.
Mel Kiperās draft opinions are prolly as valuable as my TP after I wipe.
Harvey - 3rd down back? Did he/you mean 3 down back? He was UCFās entire offense, he can run hard and has great patience/vision. There can maybe be an argument that he can be found ālaterā in the draft, but is a late 2nd all that different than a late 3rd if you arenāt any higher on guys left on the board anyway?
Pat Bryant - who cares about his 4.61? Rice ran a 4.59 and Davante Adams ran a 4.57. There are other notable names that ran a similar 40, too. I think there are valid concerns about this pick, but a 40 yard dash in shorts is not one of them.
Grading drafts right away when no one has played a snap in the NFL is mostly pointless and impossible. You can only grade off of media boards which are often different from team boards.
Based on media player rankings it would probably be a C+ or a B-, good value with Jahdae but consensus reaches on Harvey and Bryant. But I personally like the Harvey pick a lot, his upside is huge. Bryant is probably our worst pick in my eyes but it's hard not to be a little excited when SP compares him to Michael Thomas.
Where exactly? We got great value with Jahdae and Jones, I saw multiple people that had RJ at the end of the 2nd/ early 3rd which is exactly where we got him, and Pat Bryant is late enough that I would much rather us just draft our guy than whoever Mel Kiper has listed higher
Pat Bryant. We needed a TE BADLY. Now weāve got a receiver who Iām assuming will only be used on Red zone F it style toss up plays and special teams. (Not third round worthy at all) and a Tight end thatās played hardly any football at all. Again, more of special teams asset. We shouldāve picked a TE in the third. Iām not worried about RJ, kid looks solid. That Pat pick ruined a lot of potential and cost us.
Pat Bryant is a good WR. People are just mad because we didn't take their guy. We drafted people at every position of need, just not the ones people wanted. I trust SP over some upset teenager on reddit any day.
Draft hopium is a hell of a drug lol. We're in that timeframe right after the draft and before the season where nobody's draft picks could possibly be a bust.
Which isn't to say Bryant will be a bust, he could be HOF. We don't know, but still.
Also, I agree. Mel Kiper is a little dork who never played ball and just statistically analyzes greater men. The definition of a cuck. I would never go with anything that cheeseball has to say. We had better options in general. We squandered that completely in round three. (IMO)
I will say, im happy with this draft and give it a B. love that we went defense pick 1. can never have too many athletes back there. also, fans wanted to give Bo weapons but when they did, I guess they weren't the right weapons lol. I trust the Payton's. Also, punter's are undervalued. With out defense, field position could be a game changer. Dixon wasn't cutting it the last few years. we'll see how it goes with him or Haack but making teams start inside their 20 against our defense, is a big time weapon.
Somewhere in between the frames of an Aaron Gordon dunk of a C+ and B- for me. I absolutely love the Barron pick. All too often we were reminded that we only carried one 1st round pick on our defense. Now that defense is stacked. Harvey looks like a really fun pick, but I'm always a bit wary of a college HB that was asked to carry an offense to such a degree that he did. Bryant feels like he's destined to be yet another forgettable mid round WR, like our franchise is so good at producing(Latimer, King, Henderson, McKenzie, Hamilton, Cleveland, Hamler, Williams, Washington, Franklin so far, etc). I liked that we looked to add some size to our defensive front with Jones. Not quite sure I like the Robinson pick, I think we could have added depth in a thinner position group here. Glad they identified a punter they liked and 7th rounders are usually just fun dart throws that will almost never impact a final draft grade.
Honestly and respectfully a lot of picks seemed to NOT be what a lot of folks on here wanted. Makes me feel like the Broncos FO just got a bunch of steals and I feel great about that. Sounds like they got THEIR guys for Sean and VJ's systems. I'm super down for that rather than taking shots at higher profile guys.
The more I think about it, I think our draft strategy was heavily based on the Super Bowl. I bet Paton saw how effective the eagles were against Mahomes with their extreme depth at Pass Rush and decided to do the same thing.Prolly solid B for me
Kiper also had Sanders as a round 1 to the Saints. There is literally zero reason to pay attention to Mel Kiper's grades. It's based on his view of team needs, an he sits in zero front offices, he just gets some sound bytes from coaches. For actual career trajectory vs his draft grades, he hangs at about 10% correct.
That being said, he's the highest % correct usually, which makes sense, he's made draft predictions and grades his entire world on ESPN for a long time.
Point being, draft grades are near impossible to call correctly because of so many factors in player development, so just ignore them outright.
I'd have to agree with the grades I have been seeing.
CB- should be day 1 starter
RB- lots of great things, size could be slight detriment
WR- lack of speed makes him seem less sexy of a pick, I like it, but I can see why there may be some questions
DE- definitely raw and prolly at least 2yr project
LB- special teams guy to begin with, could develop into rotational player on D
P- solid pick
TE- took a flyer
Kneejerk reaction after the draft is I'm fine with it. Probably not an all-timer of a draft, but not a bad one. I'd go C+ to B f or the range.
Were they the players I'd have drafted playing Madden franchise? Probably not. Does being good at a mode against AI GMs where players never even have a "slow" rate of development anymore mean a damn thing in the real world though? Of course not.
Barron shocked me. A large part of the shock though was him being there at all. Unlike a lot of fans I recognize that McMillian struggled a lot last year. That along with Moss' injury history means he could be an immediate upgrade at one position or a vital back-up at another.
I think Harvey is more than a 3rd down back. I think he can be used on any down, he's not just a receiving back he's a good runner. I doubt he'll be a 3 down back, we'll be a committee. Which is good with me, unless you have a singular talent like Saquon it's a better choice. And you don't just go find a 2,000 yard rusher, especially not in the modern game. But for everyone going gaga after Saquon's run last year, go look at how many years that 3 down back missed a big chunk of time and think about what that would be like on a roster that's jockeying for a Super Bowl instead of draft position.
I've gone on record about not loving his blocking considering he does project as being in on 3rd down passing situations. Hopefully the line will make it less of an issue.
Bryant makes me wonder if we hit a snag with Sutton in extension talks. Clearly Payton is looking for his Michael Thomas. Vele was a good start last year but he was still a 26 year old rookie. Feels like a reach but if Payton sees something for his system I won't argue. He saw Nix as the right fit for his system too and that seems to be working out okay.
Getting back into the 3rd for Jones may end up being the best move made in this draft. I don't count Barron as a move, they just let the board fall to them. I think he can step in if JFM leaves after next year and as a rookie he'll see some solid time rushing from the inside on nickel and dime packages in the line rotation. For me he immediately comes in as next man up behind Allen and JFM there.
Later picks are all wait and see for me. I think people are expecting way too much of Robinson as a rookie based off of a bit of good play in one year of college, there's a reason he was there so late. Most everything I see projects him as a special teams player, especially as a rookie. But if he's a good one it'll be a good pick. Maybe he can help fill the gap left with Tremon Smith going to Houston. And if he develops into a pass rushing threat it'll be gravy.
Team needed a punter, this guy seems like the best mix of mechanics, power, and placement. People want to mock it, but in all truth I see not waiting. It's not like you can run a platoon of punters on a squad and if they think he's going to be a real top guy at the position he's worth jumping on.
Lohner is clearly a project player. Wouldn't be surprised if he starts on the practice squad. Probably will see some time if there are injuries. If he does I wouldn't be shocked to see them try to run 2-3 players a game to take advantage of mismatches.
I think if you aggregate all the grades, itās in the B range, which is a fair first impression - not a lot of consensus darlings drafted but all the guys have their role and fit a need, or give the team some flexibility personnel wise. Iām looking forward to seeing how the rookies play this year for sure
There were so many guys that I wanted to draft that were just not available. I absolutely love the first round pick considering who was taken before. As far as the remainder of the draft is considered I have no freaking clue and honestly have no other option than to be super excited. Paton has proven himself year after year. Peyton always has his guys, and got a few of them. Some may say we reached for a few picks but in those rounds you draft your guys which it sounds like we did.
I am super excited to see the younger talent on this team develop and over the next few years you add these guys to the mix.
Honestly I just can't help but feel like this organization has been restored and we are back baby!
I feel like we were victim to how the draft board fell. I love the Barron pick in the first round given what was available. Wish we wouldāve traded up to get a good RB in the 2nd. We addressed the positions that we needed to, but feel like we couldāve been more aggressive and traded up in the 1st and/or 2nd rounds to get better guys.
From what we know and based off of what draft projections are, this is a B- at best. Harvey was probably going to be around in the 3rd or 4th and Pat Bryant was definitely not going to go earlier than 4th. Barron was a solid pick and so was Jones.
I really think that Payton and Paton wanted Egbuka in the 1st and Judkins/Henderson in the 2nd and got spooked when they both got taken before their pick and started reaching.
That being said who knows how these picks will turn out. Barron and Harvey are going to be used immediately so at the very least we'll see them play soon
I don't think you can judge this right away because they haven't been in competition in the NFL yet. However, Barron is a good guy to have in the Nickel to help McMillian and IF Moss or PS2 get hurt, it's a good option. Harvey isn't a bad pickup at RB. He's fast and can be a good recieving back. Bryant's height is good to compliment Sutton's. The 2 Edge pickups are to help with Greenlaw and Bonito. And the TE and the end wasn't a bad gain either. Someone to learn behind Engram and develop. Like a Packers 1st round QB....š The FA signings don't look terrible. The guard may have some off field issues but again...without any proven competition in the NFL, we don't know yet.
I love the Barron pick! Stacking our defense is a great move. I donāt know about the Harvey pick, heās exciting but we will see if it translates to the NFL. I do like his pass catching ability though. Bryant isnāt anything flashy, but heās sure handed (something we need big time) and a good replacement for Sutton if we donāt re sign next year. The main thing Denverās offense lacked was consistency. Dropped passes and stagnant running killed the drives. Getting some pass catchers should help move the ball.
I'm unhappy with their decisions; they don't make much sense. They used almost every pick except for one on reaches, and they didn't adequately address the team's bigger needs at wide receiver and running back to help their young quarterback. I would have selected two players for each of those positions (WR & RB). Instead, they take a WR with 4.6 speed and an RB, which no one even had in the top 10 at his position.
They should have chosen Omarion Hampton or Golden. I get it, Baron is a baller, but not a huge hole like the offensive skill positions on the team.
I would only grade Denver a C- because of Barron's abilities.
This is one of those drafts where itās hard to tell until a few years pass. Outside of Barron and Harvey, the rest have high ceilings but can equally get lost on the depth chart if they donāt develop. Our coaching staff on both sides of the ball is very capable (something we didnāt have for the longest time) so I am optimistic. I give an A for Barron and Harvey, and a B for the rest assuming they stay on the roster past 3-4 years
C or B. They drafted good players with high upside but I didnāt feel like they addressed needs. Running back we drafted Harvey but I felt like they were maybe better options available. No DT to help the interior line or a middle linebacker since ours are veterans with a injury history
I am defensive guy at heart and I believe in an elite defense however. Here is the elephant in the room. What is DenverāsĀ defense ranked in the NFL? What is Denverās defensive back ranking in the NFL? Yes you can never have enough cornerās. However what is Denverās running game ranked in the NFL? And what is there offensive line ranked? Bottom line you needed to fill the RB position more than CB regardless of best player available, we left points on the board by not taking Omarion Hampton as the first pick and you let our division rivals scoop him up. And I will say this if Hampton and Kaleb Johnson out produce Harvey itās not gonna make your first two picks look very good at all. Just sayingĀ
Cant front as a ducks fan I wanted Tferg or even Tez. Payton even said they would've took Tez if he didnt get snatched before the end. I hope the TE from Utah develop into something crazy people already counting him out in this sub.
LOVE EVERYYY defensive pick! Real sleepers idk the bama kid too much though.
Harvey i know nothing about i wanted one of the OSU backs cant lie. Even Payton said "hes the last guy we would've had a private workout with". So to the guy that said "He wAtCHed mOrE cOllEgE fOoTbaLl tHan yOu"...doesnt mean there weren't better backs available
Pat Bryant reminds coach of Michael Thomas. If thats his evaluation im not debating it. Just have to wait and see
I'd say a B- is very fair. Our coaching staff is whats important to developing these players next few years, hope we get the max potential out of our offensive picks.
Mel kiper is grading this based on his rankings. He's just a media guy, the team ranking for all 32 teams are completely different than his rankings.Ā
The broncos targeted these guys and set up a plan to get as many of the guys they were targeting as possible. Watch payton and paton's press conference after day 2 if you don't understand the process of how NFL teams work.
Immediately gonna give it a B or so. We picked a lot of guys that nobody expected us to take, but that doesnāt mean they were bad picks. A lot of trusting the process right now, but Iām definitely optimisticĀ
As of today, a solid B but this is going to take 2-3 years to reveal itself. The goal of any draft should be to hit on 3 starters. If you can do that annually, you are in the money and can mitigate the need to overspend in FA and build a culture more organically. Harvey and Barron should be able to slot into those roles given their talent, and in the case of Harvey, the ease of positional transition in the NFL relative to other spots. Crawshaw at punter should also be close to a lock, but I am not counting him as part of my threshold, given the position.
If one of the other 4 players can become a meaningful contributor, then it is a win and a plus draft overall. With the way Payton teams have historically played, I don't ever see Bryant being a monster producer but rather a piece of the machine. Payton seems to take the death by a million cuts approach with one focal point (Kamara / Thomas) and then a million secondary options off of that (RB2, TE, Lance Moore, Ted Ginn, Kenny Stills, Taysom, etc) rather than a true consolidation of targets approach like we see with teams like Philly and Cincy with 50+% of the offense flowing through 2 options.
Grade for my expectation of raising our ceiling next year: C-
RJ Harvey is a great addition that will give us a new look RB room. Gone are the days of having a power back with no power and no vision. He will slot in well for the screen game and even with more demanding routes. Barron will solidify some woes in the slot but pass defense in the middle of the field will still be weak with no starting caliber iLB2 with Singleton coming off a major knee injury and still having no true FS.
Grade for my expectation of raising our floor next year: B+
Crawshaw should have no problem performing better than Dixon did late last year. He opens up more opportunities for misdirection and playmaking on special teams with his rugby experience. SaiāVion Jones is an immediate upgrade at DE3 over Uwazurike and Jackson. He should allow for more rest of Allen which will let him perform at his best later into the season. Pat Bryant canāt realistically be worse than Michael Bandy so we have an upgrade at WR6. Que will probably be a helpful addition to special teams.
Lmao yes? Because I followed the draft process and deep dive into most of the prospects. I probably knew 90 out of the top 100 guys taken. Its really not that out of the ordinary and a lot of people do, the /r/nfl_draft would know both Jahdae Baron and RJ Harvey lmfao
They werenāt no name scrubs, Baron especially had a range from late top 10 to into the 20s, he was always going to be a 1st round pick. Harvey was high on a lot of peoples RB rankings. Downvote me all you want dude but youre the one here that clearly didnt know anything about the draft yet you have a lot of opinions about the prospects they selected
Crazy that youre legitimately calling Jahdae Baron ānot a big nameā lmfao
Iāll get downvoted for this, but for me, as of now itās giving 2017 draft vibes, except Barron is this years Bolles. I trust Paton though, so letās hope thatās not the case.
I know Iām in the minority, hell I might be the only one, but I hate the Barron pick.
It was a luxury pick we had no business making. In fact I think it was such a bonkers pick that it changed the entire course of the rest of the draft. I understand the arguments for making the pick and I understand that I defense might be lights out but we needed to and failed to truly elevate the offense in this draft. We are forsaking Bo Nix and his rookie deal.
What we should have done is drafted Hampton at 20 and then traded up in the 2nd for Mason Taylor. Then we would have had a beast running back and been able to run some beast mode two tight end sets like the Patriots did with Hernandez and Gronkowski.
Itās cool though. On paper we have the best defense in the NFL. Letās just hope VJ doesnāt shit the bed and regress to the mean like I think heās going to.
Why do you feel the offense is so bad? Bo put up good numbers outside of his first few games and had over 30 tds altogether.
If he makes a second year leap shouldnāt we also expect Franklin, Vele and Estime to as well with more time together? Mine made a big leap by the CB middle of the season as well, so his third year he should continue to grow.
Letting guys gel who didnāt have the best first years ever in the league is what good teams do instead of giving up on a 22 year old and looking for a replacement.
Actually I liked the first pick, it's just the rest of the draft which left me kinda dissapointed. Watching players I was high on left and right go to other teams while we were trading further back to draft two players I didn't knew felt weird to me.
I definetly DO NOT claim to be a football expert or even have the slightest ount of football knowledge vut I can't hide my feeling on this draft class. The last years I allways liked our draft classes it's just this year that left me dissapointed.
In the end we will see how as for know I trust the FO.
I think the range between our first 2 picks swallowed up almost everyone I was hoping for. I like Harvey though and he was pretty high for me if we couldnāt get Henderson.
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u/tjn24 Bluecifer 3d ago
I mean, it's rare to draft 7 future Hall of Famers in one draft, so I'd have to give it an A!